Tokyo Station’s perfect breakfast spot might just be this izakaya Japanese-style pub

If you’re headed through Tokyo Station, you won’t regret starting your day the Hatsufuji way.

Tokyo Station is a busy place in the morning. Whether you’ve there because you‘ve just arrived in the capital and have a full day of sightseeing planned, are about to hop on a bullet train out of town to visit another part of Japan, or are on your way to an important business meeting, you’ll want to keep your energy levels up, and the key to doing so is to make sure you eat a good breakfast.

So imagine our happy surprise recently when we recently discovered what might be the perfect place to eat breakfast if Tokyo Station is featured in your morning plans.

Called Yaesu Hatsufuji, it’s located in the Yaechika shopping/restaurant complex that’s connected to Tokyo Station, just a short walk from outside the Yasesu Chuo ticket gates (i.e. you don’t need to buy a train ticket to access the restaurant). The restaurant is technically an izakaya (Japanese-style pub), but they’re also open for breakfast, serving Japanese morning fare from 7 a.m.

With 130 seats, we were able to find a place to sit right away, and ordering is pretty easy even if you don’t speak Japanese. Models of various breakfast options are on display in the morning, and you order by buying a meal ticket from a vending machine at the entrance, which you then hand to the staff.

The breakfast sets are all reasonably priced at about 700 yen (US$5.35), and we found ourselves strongly tempted by candidates like meat and tofu, grilled salmon fillet, and ginger pork. Ultimately, though, we went with a classic morning comfort food, tamagoyaki, a Japanese-style omelet, in the 680-yen tamagoyaki set.

After we gave our meal ticket to the staff, our food was ready with lightning quickness. We’d barely sat down and set down our shoulder bag before the server brought our breakfast on a tray and placed it before us.

The set comes with rice, hijiki (a kind of sea vegetable), pickles, seaweed, and miso soup. The star of the show, though, is, of course, the tamagoyaki. The omelet is usually more of a side dish, so having one of main-dish proportions filled us with giddy joy.

Depending on the chef, tamagoyaki can lean more to the sweet or savory side of the flavor spectrum. Taking a bite, we found that Hatsufuji’s is of the savory variety, with soft but delicious sensations of dashi (bonito stock). You can also mix things up by adding the grated daikon radish, mixed with a few drops of soy sauce, to the egg before you take a bite.

The hijiki was delicious too…

…and the rice warm and fluffy, just like it’s supposed to be.

▼ Though using the seaweed to wrap up a bite gives you a nice crunchy texture too, if that’s what you’re in the mood for.

By the way, Hatsufuji offers large-size portions of rice for free (ask for “gohan omori”), but we were plenty full after having the regular size.

Hatsufuji offers its breakfast sets from 7 to 11 a.m., weekends included, so it’s even an option for late-risers. We’re already planning to head back again to try everything we didn’t have room for on this visit, and if it’s Tokyo Staton-area desserts you’re looking for instead, don’t forget about the all-you-can-eat tart cafe.

Restaurant information
Yaesu Hatsufuji / やえす初藤
Address: Tokyo-to, Chuo-ku, Yaesu 2-1, Yaesu Chikagai Kita Ichigo
東京都中央区八重洲2-1 八重洲地下街北一号
Open 7 a.m.-10 p.m. (Monday-Thursday), 7 a.m.-10:30 p.m. (Friday), 7 a.m.-9:30 p.m. (weekends, holidays)
Website

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